How to Spot a Mass Extinction Event

Funded by the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) - Global Seed Funds - Spain, members of the Summons's group carried out a geological fieldtrip in northwestern Tunisia in Spring 2012.

This activity formed part of an international collaboration between Prof. Roger E. Summons and research scientist Julio Sepúlveda (MIT), Prof. Laia Alegret (University of Zaragoza, Spain), and Prof. Hedi Negra (University of Tunis El Manar, Tunisia), to study the recovery of planktonic communities following the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction event.

Tunisia hosts the world most expanded and complete K-Pg sections, including the Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point of El Kef, thus allowing for the recovery of high-resolution records.

The team was led by MIT research scientist Julio Sepúlveda and Prof. Hedi Negra, and included MIT graduate student Marie Giron, Dr. Jens Wendler (University of Bremen, Germany), and University of Tunis graduate students Salwa Bey and Marwa Barouni.

Samples recovered from the K-Pg sections of El Kef, Elles, and Ain Settara, are currently undergoing geochemical, isotopic, microfossil, and sedimentological analyses. The results are expected to help reconcile the long-standing controversy about post-extinction ecosystem recovery and the perturbation of the carbon cycle, as inferred from carbon isotopes and microfossil records.

Organic geochemical work performed in the Summons' lab is aimed at unraveling the role of phytoplanktonic organisms lacking hard skeletons in sustaining carbon cycling and food supply to deep-sea communities in the aftermath of the extinction.

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